‘Bad Boys 3’ in Negotiations With Two Potential New Directors

When director Joe Carnahan bowed out of the possible third film in the Bad Boys franchise a year ago, we all wondered what the Bad Boys were gonna do. But it looks like you can’t keep a bad boy down for too long, and Bad Boys 3 — otherwise known as Bad Boys for Life — has found two potential new co-directors to pick it back up.

Sony is in early negotiations with the directing duo Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The two directors helmed a few episodes of FX’s drama Snowfall last year and their third feature, Gangsta, is coming out this year. El Arbi and Fallah were both born in Morocco and studied film in Belgium before making their way to the U.S.

A third Bad Boys installment has been in the works for years, with directors hopping on and off repeatedly every few months. Martin Lawrence, one half of the buddy cop duo that also includes Will Smith, said a few months ago that he really didn’t have much hope for the series at all, though he said he was ready to do it if the studio called him. “If they wanted to do it, I’m ready, but I don’t have control of that. That’s the studio’s decision.”